The present invention relates generally to a copy editing apparatus and method, and more particularly, is related to a copy editing apparatus and method utilizing a pen-based computer operating system. In the context of the present application, reference to "pen-based computer" means any computer technology using a stylus, exacting computer operations.
In order to better understand the present invention, it is first necessary to describe existing copy editing procedures for manuscripts. Initially, an author prepares a new manuscript, usually on a computer, using conventional word processing software, such a "WORDPERFECT", "WORDSTAR" or the like. The author then sends the printed manuscript to a publisher for acceptance.
A production editor employed by the publisher reviews the manuscript and decides to publish the manuscript as a book. At this time, the production editor obtains a diskette containing the manuscript from the author and sends the manuscript to a copy editor, who may be an independent person hired by the publisher or an in-house copy editor.
The job of the copy editor is to carefully review the manuscript for changes therein. Specifically, the copy editor first manually folios or numbers all of the pages, and then reviews and edits the manuscript for grammatical and contextual errors by writing the changes on the printed manuscript, and flagging author queries and rewrites. The author queries are questions that the copy editor cannot answer. Thus, the questions are written on the manuscript, with a note tag removably adhered to the page to indicate the author query.
The copy editor also marks the manuscript with style elements for later typesetting of the manuscript. Many of these style elements can be repetitive and extensive. For example, the copy editor will change each double dash "- -" to an EM dash, which is a longer dash that is conventional in typesetting of books. The copy editor will also have to indicate whether spaces should be placed between the EM dash and the preceding and following words. For example, if the author writes "dog - - the", the copy editor may decide that there should be no spaces between the dashes and the words "dog" and "the". An EM dash with no spaces is deemed to be closed, while an EM dash with spaces is deemed to be open. In such case, the copy editor will mark up the text as follows: "dog 1/M the". However, this can become extremely messy and confusing in the case of heavy edits. For example, this may be performed hundreds of times in a manuscript. As another example, the copy editor will change each single dash "-" to an EN dash, which is a shorter dash that is conventionally used between numbers when typesetting books. The copy editor will also have to indicate whether spaces should be placed between the EN dash and the preceding and following numbers. An EN dash with no spaces is deemed to be closed, while an EN dash with spaces is deemed to be open. For example, if the author writes "15 - 17", the copy editor may decide that there should be no spaces between the dashes and the numbers. In such case, the copy editor will mark up the text as follows: "15 1/N 17". However, this also can become extremely messy and confusing in the case of heavy edits, and may be performed hundreds of times in a manuscript.
Other style elements would be to change spellings of words throughout the manuscript, such as from a British to a U.S. spelling, and the like. Further, the copy editor will place markings adjacent, for example, the chapter headings, to indicate how they will print. These are conventionally contained within a circle. For example, adjacent the heading for chapter 1 and in the left margin, the copy editor may place a mark CN surrounded by a circle to indicate a standardized style for the heading which includes typeface, point size, bold, capitals, centering and the like. The copy editor will also make sure that all references to other books and the like have the same format throughout the manuscript, for example, author followed by title, and the like.
The heavily edited manuscript is then sent to the author for approval of the copy edits and to obtain answers with respect to the author query tags. The author then makes any further mark-ups or comments and answers the author query tags by writing on the manuscript, and sends the edited manuscript back to the production editor. The production editor finalizes any changes by making sure that all of the author query tags are answered and making sure that further author comments are consistent with the manuscript. At this time, the manuscript is ready for typesetting.
Because of the heavily marked-up manuscript, the production editor has the manuscript rekeyboarded, that is, retyped with all of the changes incorporated therein, into for example ASCII. The rekeyboarding is performed twice by different persons, and then the retyped manuscripts are run through a computer program that compares the two to make sure that they are consistent. This catches any errors during the retyping. The codes inserted by the copy editor are then inserted separately by another person. Specifically, the style mark-up codes are added. It will be appreciated that the work that the copy editor had performed is thereby duplicated. Alternatively, the original work on the computer can be edited from the marked-up manuscript without rekeyboarding. This results in duplication of work with respect to the manual editing cycle and the subsequent duplicative electronic connection.
The production editor then sends the finalized retyped manuscript and disk therefor, for typesetting. A conventional typesetting system will read the codes on the manuscript and determine the different styles that are required. After the manuscript is typeset, it is sent back to the production editor for approval. The production editor and the author then each proof-read the manuscript. Any corrections are made, and the manuscript is recomposed on the typesetting machine, which provides a film image of each page with a silver emulsion. A cathode ray tube (CRT) images one line at a time and a developer is used to fix the print and wash off the emulsion, leaving black text on a white background paper.
The printer then makes a negative or reverse image of the fixed image and a plate is burned for each page, for use on a printing press drum.
It will therefore be appreciated that there is much duplication and waste in the copy editing process, in view of the manual editing system and retyping of the entire changed manuscript.
Further, the use of pen-based computer operating systems or so-called pen computers is known, albeit not in the copy editing field. Pen computers use a combination screen and slate on which the user writes with an inkless pen. Handwriting recognition is incorporated into such systems, and particularly, printing of letters or symbols by the user on the screen is detected and interpreted by the computer and then inserted into the text on the screen in the specific computer font that is being used. There is a very fast learning curve in which the computer instructs the user to enter various letters in order for the computer to understand the particular user's handwriting. Basically, the computer determines in which direction the pen is moving, how fast the pen is moving, the pressure on the pen, and the like to provide this character recognition.
In addition to the letters and symbols, the computer interprets gestures which direct the computer what to do. For example, a commonly-available pen-based operating system sold under the trademark "PENPOINT" by GO Corporation, provides the following gestures:
______________________________________ GESTURE MEANING ______________________________________ B BOLD: changes selected text to bold I ITALICS: italicizes selected text U UNDERLINES selected text N RESTORES original text .right brkt-bot. .vertline. CAPITALIZES all selected text .right brkt-bot. INITIAL CAPITALIZATION of words (when gesture is started at left) LOWER CASE for all selected text .right brkt-bot. NEW PARAGRAPH started (when gesture is started from the top) .left brkt-top. opens space to INSERT CHARACTER .left brkt-bot. adds BLANK SPACE X DELETES word DELETES a character or selected text CARET: creates a new document or opens a writing pad CARET TAP: Opens a large embedded writing pad .largecircle. CIRCLE: opens a pad for word editing / PRESS: this indicates a pressing of the pen point on the screen so as to move or drag selected text to new location ! TAP PRESS: this indicates a tap of the pen point on the screen followed by a press of the pen point - for copying selected text, the pen is dragged to the new point where copying occurs . SINGLE TAP of the pen point selects the tapped letter, menus or options . . DOUBLE TAP of the pen point selects a word .thrfore. TRIPLE TAP of the pen point selects a sentence QUADRUPLE TAP of the pen point selects a paragraph [ LEFT BRACKET selects one word to right ] RIGHT BRACKET selects one word to left [ ] BRACKETS select text between brackets .parallel. FLICK UP or DOWN to scroll up or down = FLICK LEFT or RIGHT scrolls to the left or right P PROOF: shows alternate spellings of a word F FIND: search and replace a specific word S SPELL: checks spelling in a selection or document ______________________________________
However, such a system could not practically be used in the copy editing field. Specifically, if a copy editor were to place an "X" on a word, the word would be deleted entirely. Therefore, an author reading the marked-up text would not know what word was taken out unless he compared the original and marked-up text, which comparison is impractical. Still further, when text is inserted by the copy editor, the text is added in the same font as the existing text. Therefore, an author reading the marked-up text would not know what text was added by the copy editor.
Still further, such a pen computing system does not provide space for author queries or the like.
In addition, with such pen computing systems, and with conventional word processing systems, when text is added or deleted, the entire text will realign to compensate for such addition or deletion. Therefore, if an author were to review the copy editor's changes thereon, the entire page numbering scheme would be different, and it would be difficult and burdensome to determine how the page numbers of the changed text related to the page numbers of the original text.
Still further, such pen computing systems generally provide a spelling checker, similar to conventional word processing computer systems. Such spelling checkers generally include a master list provided by the software vendor and a master update list which the user can add to. However, in many instances, the words in one manuscript might need to be spelled differently from words in another manuscript. As a result, a master list could not be used. Rather, a separate list would be required for each manuscript.
Further, it is desirable to provide a time record of the amount of time a copy editor spends on a job, particularly if the copy editor is an independent person not employed by the production manager. Although time keeping systems are generally known, there is no known system that automatically maintains a record of time for a particular job as part of the pen computing process. Generally, time keeping systems in computing systems must be opened separately, with the data of the particular job manually set thereinto.
Related to the above, it is noted that U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,600 to Norwood, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a hybrid information management system for handwriting And text. However, with this system, the user merely writes on the screen and the writing shows up as a graphical diagram of the user's handwriting. There is no means by which the device interprets the user's handwriting and then converts the same to a font on the screen.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,029 to Barker et al, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a similar system in which there is no interpretation or conversion of the user's handwriting.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,714,636 to Manly, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses an automatic editing method with page formatting. Specifically, this reference does not relate to a pen computer system, although it does relate to a system to avoid manually retyping or rekeyboarding textual material when revising the same. See also U.S. Pat. No. 3,676,856, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,781,816 to Coleman et al, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses an automatic publications system which also does not use a pen computing system.